BBC Music March 2022

In our March issue, Richard Morrison meets the inimitable tenor Nicky Spence, who has spent the last couple of years administering vaccines while singing Schubert, compèring outdoor concerts and playing lead roles at the Royal Opera House. Jeremy Pound takes a few friends to follow in the footsteps of Gustav Holst in Gloucestershire, while Clare Stevens reflects on the ways music helped her generation cope with the ever-present threat of the Troubles in 1970s Belfast. Julia Winterson looks back on the dawn of the railway and the many composers who have been inspired by the possibilities of train travel. As Lidarti’s reconstructed oratorio Esther is about to receive its UK premiere in the language of the Old Testament, Michael White maps its history.